


Butterfly House

by chibi_zoe



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Reality, Gen, Psychologists & Psychiatrists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-19 19:02:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3620793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibi_zoe/pseuds/chibi_zoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minato is the director of Butterfly House, a place where traumatised children with nowhere else to go can recover.  Kakashi is the orphaned son of a criminal overlord whose life has so far consisted of little more than blood and violence and death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Butterfly House

Title: Butterfly House pt 1  
Author: chibi-zoe  
Series: Naruto  
Pairing: Minato + Kakashi  
Rating: PG  
Summary: Minato is the director of Butterfly House, a place where traumatised children with nowhere else to go can recover. Kakashi is the orphaned son of a criminal overlord whose life has so far consisted of little more than blood and violence and death.

Reading slowly through the surprisingly large dossier on his latest ‘guest’ that had been provided by the State Psychologist, Dr Namikaze wondered how on earth it was possible for a child to have survived such a horrendous upbringing. There were copies of police records, including crime scene photos, transcripts of court proceedings and a variety of hand-written notes containing various impressions of the child – none of them good. This child, Kakashi, was clearly going to be a challenge. 

“Ahh, here he is now.” Minato turned to look out of the window in the direction that the nurse was pointing. Sure enough, he could a small, thin, white-haired child walking docilely between two exceptionally large and heavily built juvenile detention officers. Minato frowned.

“He’s such a little boy. From the notes in his file, I was expecting someone bigger.” The nurse gave him an odd look; they both knew that all of Kakashi’s personal information was in the file, including his height and weight. 

Rising to his feet, he plucked his coat from its hanger and swung it around his shoulders, the hand drawn flames swirling around his calves as he did so, and went to meet his newest, and youngest, client.

“Dr Namikaze?” Minato gifted the guard who had spoken with the stern gaze he always employed with outsiders. The man stood up straighter and clapped a hand down onto Kakashi’s shoulder. The fact that the man did not squeeze or push down unnecessarily firmly told Minato that here was one of the good ones – a rare commodity in their line of work.

“Thank you Officer,” he peered at the man’s name tag, “Uchiha. We’ll take it from here. Where do I sign?”  
The other office, the one who wouldn’t meet Minato’s eyes, produced a form and handed it over. Minato ran his eyes over the paper, checking that it was the same as always – it was – and then made his mark at the bottom. Handing back the signed form, Minato crouched down in front of the boy who was now his responsibility.

“Hello Kakashi, I’m Dr Namikaze and I’ll be in charge of your treatment from now on.” The boy barely reacted, his eyes dead and uncaring. Minato held in a shiver, and rose to his feet. Taking the boy’s hand, he waved a brief goodbye to the officers and led his newest charge into the building. 

** -- ** -- **

Kakashi looked around his new ‘room’. It was a dormitory with six bunks, each with its own locker and privacy curtain. Taking off his small backpack, Kakashi put it carefully into his locker. He didn’t have much, just two changes of clothes, a comb, and a toothbrush. He had no personal mementos, not that he could see the point of them, although the other occupants apparently all had them. Dr Namikaze, who insisted that he should be called Dr Minato, then showed him around the facility, talking happily the whole time. Kakashi couldn’t help but think that perhaps this man needed treatment himself – for out of control cheerfulness.

His first night was unremarkable and reminiscent of his days in juvenile detention – including the fact that he was by far the youngest person in the facility. Apparently, not too many pre-teens committed such heinous crimes as he had. 

The next morning, when he shuffled down the hall to the bathroom with the others, he was surprised to find that the bathing facilities had been designed to suit children, with a range of small commodes and adjustable height showers – he hadn’t noticed it the previous day when Dr Minato had showed him around. Not having to use a step-stool to reach everything was rather nice.

Breakfast was simple and filling, and there were cartoons playing on the TV at the front of the room. Kakashi laughed despite himself as he watched the animated figures fight each other in an over-the-top and bloodless way. 

There was school after breakfast, but Dr Minato had told Kakashi to wait in the refectory rather than follow the others to class. No-one said anything to him as he stayed seated at the small table near the front, apparently this was common practice for the ‘new kids’. One of the nurses smiled at him as she was cleaning up and handed him a small carton of flavoured milk.

“Kakashi?” At the sound of Dr Minato’s voice, Kakashi looked up. 

The doctor was standing in the doorway, in his odd coat, with his hair all dishevelled and an overly large steaming mug cradled in his hands. He looked more like an intern than a director of such a high-profile facility. Kakashi’s father would never have stood for such slovenliness. Already, Kakashi had catalogued fifteen different ways to kill the doctor, although none of them provided him with an easy avenue of escape afterwards. Choosing to bide his time and see what the day brought, Kakashi picked up his half-full milk carton, rose to his feet and moved towards the man.

** -- ** -- **

There was something almost predatory gleaming in the child’s eyes as he walked with unnatural grace towards the doorway. Minato barely contained his shiver of unease, and did his best to plaster a warm, welcoming, smile onto his face. As he did so, Kakashi gave him A Look that said quite clearly ‘you don’t fool me’. Was it wrong to be wary of a child less than half his size? Then again, this child had also killed two fully armed police officers, in front of witnesses, without even batting an eyelid, and was a prime suspect in the gruesome slaughter of at least half a dozen criminals said to have tried to betray his father’s organisation.

Taking a large slurp of his thick morning coffee to calm his nerves, Minato tried to banish the images rising to the surface of his mind. Images of Kakashi at the moment of his subjugation, wild eyed and covered in fresh blood, and, worse yet, images of the crime scenes that the police believed Kakashi to be the perpetrator of. Swallowing his rising gorge back down again, Minato reached out a hand and ruffled Kakashi’s hair, determined to prove to himself that this boy was just a normal child who’d had an awful upbringing, rather than a demon given human form.

“Come on then, let’s get this show on the road.” Resting his hand companionably on Kakashi’s shoulder as he guided the boy towards his office, Minato wondered if Kakashi had ever had any companions who were his own age. None of his actions suggested that he had ever just played silly games for the sake of having fun. It was like his entire upbringing had consisted of ways to either kill people or force them to conform to his will – a perfect miniature Sakumo in fact. 

** -- ** -- **

The assessment didn’t last nearly as long as Kakashi expected it to. Some of the state doctors had been with him for hours and hours, boring Kakashi nearly to tears. Dr Minato on the other hand gave him 45mins of time and then rose to his feet saying that that was it for the day. They would meet every day for an hour after his lessons were over. Kakashi noticed that Dr Minato did not give any indication of how long they would continue to meet for. He suspected that he was going to be stuck here until he was legal, and then he’d probably be transferred to the adult facility, unless of course he could make the doctor truly believe that his actions had been no fault of his own.


End file.
